What will you do when your boiler breaks?

[Jurgmee]

Genuine question if people are considering getting a heat pump. If so will you be applying for a grant.

I’ve had a quote recently. The government are giving £7500 per household. Out quote came back at 4K before labour/changing radiators.

edited to add that it’s 4k after the gov grant is deducted.

if our gas boiler breaks, I’ll be getting a new gas boiler.

Our gas boiler is on its last legs. We're getting a heat pump. The difference between the grant and the cost will be covered by an interest free loan over 10 years.

Oh goodness, I’ve had a nightmare these past couple of days with our plumbing, which I won’t bore you with!!

Suffice it to say, said plumbing nightmare got me thinking about boiler replacement.

The thing is, even getting the boilers (we have two) replaced with new boilers would create quite enough dust and mess for me. I would just be very grateful to have them in, up, and running. And it would cost a great deal.

If we start talking about a heat pump, I would need to replace all pipes and all radiators, throughout all rooms. And we live in an old house and it would need insulating to within an inch of its life, which it simply isn’t set up for. So no thank you to a heat pump!

Also, albeit as an aside, I’ve heard heat pumps work efficiently when it’s not too cold. This does not bode well in my part of the country!

I’m aware my response sounds very Luddite, and I will read and take on board other views!!

I looked at heat pumps a couple of years ago. Even with grants, it was going to cost us £10k and we were advised that it wouldn't even work that well, so we bought a new gas boiler instead. Not great, I know, but the alternative wasn't a viable option at that time.

Hoping that things will have moved on when this boiler has had its day!

We’re rural. No gas. We have an electric immersion boiler and a couple of standalone electric heaters. Our cottage is tiny and it works fine. I’d love a heat pump but realistically it’s not high on my list of priorities.

snap @Namechangeforthis88
grant and interest free loan (in Scotland, so I think we get more?) mean we'll be paying less out up front to get a heat pump.
the boilers been on its last legs for a couple of years, so the people come to fit the heat pump in the first week of December

I’d rather do solar panels and an electric boiler than a heat pump.

Got a heat pump and it’s crap. Now getting solar installed and hope it improves things. House is pretty cold but with solar it may make sense to run additional electric heating.

Heat pumps require serious levels of insulation. Our windows are not great so would have to be replaced. We would also have to dry line the entire house as our walls are only "fair". We can't pump them as we are timber framed and won't wrap the outside as it's all lovely brickwork.

We got a new oil boiler.

We’ve got pretty good insulation and I certainly cannot recommend them.

We replaced our gas boiler with a heat pump last November. We are very happy with ours. The house is toasty warm and we are paying less in fuel bills than we were with the gas boiler.

Unfortunately, pretty good isn't enough.

They are pushing heat pumps but not stressing that they are not suitable for many houses.

I haven’t got a boiler. I live in an apartment with a heat pump. Not everyone lives in a suburban semi.

Did you get a grant to help with the upfront costs?

That's nice.

I think we all know not everyone lives in a suburban semi. I live in a semi-rural detached house 🤷‍♀️

We’ve just replaced our boiler with a new gas one. Never even considered the heat pump one.

You’d never guess it from this thread. No idea that anyone might live off the gas mains or in a flat or anywhere that’s not a house with a boiler outside London

I thought most people off the gas grid would have an oil boiler

@SabinaSteele ·
Fads fads and more fads. Like solar panels with their huge initial outlay after the first couple of years of freebies.

I live in Ireland. We got solar panels in July 2023. We paid €9500 and then got a grant of €2,400 so a net outlay of €7,100.
We had zero electricity costs from October 2023 to October 2024, that included a government payment for energy costs of €450. We get 21.5c for every kWh we export to the grid.
We estimate that the panels will have fully paid for themselves in 7 years.

I'm not on gas mains and posted about my experience. I have a oil boiler.

I still don't understand your issue. This is a thread about heat pumps. In the same way that a thread about meat recipes isn't relevant to a vegan, I don't know why someone who doesn't have a boiler would bother opening the thread.

We weren’t on gas mains, our options were to replace oil boiler or go for a heat pump and in my opinion we chose the wrong option

We wont/cant get a heat pump. You need a certain amount of space between it and your neighbours house. And if we put it anywhere near it would block the path to the back gate.

We’ll probably be getting another gas boiler if we need to replace ours. Even with the government grant it’d still be substantially cheaper to get a gas one .

Our heat pump is outside our kitchen window, I where near a path.